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Meet 8 was a JV meet in Jefferson, WI.
I personally LOVE JV meets. It's such a great way to give younger and lesser experienced athletes a chance to take hold of the spotlight and show what they're capable of. As well, meets like this really bring the future into perspective.
There are a number of coaches that don't have this same stance. They only care about their "big time" athletes that will make them look good, and give very little effort to support their JV-level athletes unless it is in their own personal interests.
I understand there are circumstances dealing with staffing and personal schedules, but for years I've watched (and even helped) JV kids that competed with no coach(es) in sight.
I simply want everyone reading this blog to support and believe in their JV athletes as much as their varsity-level athletes. If you don't treat all athletes the same something is wrong and needs to change to not only give your athletes what they deserve, but to preserve your program moving forward.
Onto the meet!
We jumped two athletes per event.
For boys long jump we jumped an athlete that is a senior and had had a solid career here in SP. He hasn't had the opportunity to jump much this season, and won the event with a jump of 18'8". The winning mark was only 2" from his all-time PR. I was extremely proud of him! The other jumper was a sophomore that is competing in the track for the first time. He took third with a jump of 17'6" and set a new PR by nearly a foot in doing so! He is going to be really good!
For the girls long jump we jumped a junior and a freshman. The junior tied for 2nd place and the freshman jumped really well but was taking off from WAY BEHIND the board. I actually think she would have set a new PR had she hit the board! Both girls competed very well!
For the boys triple jump we jumped a sophomore and a junior. Both are first-year jumpers, and are doing very well! The sophomore set a new PR and took 2nd at the meet. The junior jumped a HUGE PR, but it was a scratch (by mere centimeters). Both have very bright futures in the triple jump and I couldn't be more excited!
For the girls triple jump we jumped two freshmen that haven't jumped (triple) in a competition yet and were very unsure of the event and being put in the lineup to compete. They have both worked on the event at practice, but it's been awhile. One freshman was visibly uncomfortable and wasn't able to perform the first phase properly so I had her scratch a jump and told her we would simply work on it at practice - to which she agreed. The second freshman jumped exceptionally well and put herself in position to have an impact on future lineups!
I set her up to jump from the 20' board, and had her do a number of run throughs until she felt comfortable with the approach. Once that was accomplished, she performed a few more approaches with the first phase to simply build confidence of connecting speed with the jump itself. Once that was done she had to leave to compete in the 200m dash prelims, and didn't jump for nearly 40 minutes.
When she returned I could tell she was pretty tired from the 200, but was in good spirits and wanted to compete - she's a gamer. The first jump she performed she was able to perform a full jump, but was obviously still attempting to "put it all together" and feel out the event. On her second jump she took off from the wrong board and went 25'3". So, in all reality she jumped a 29' jump. He third jump was also from the wrong board, but wasn't as far (energy levels zapped). On her final jump I instructed her to jump from the board she had been hitting and changed it with the person running the event. Instead of hitting that board (the 24' board), she jumped from behind the 28' board and didn't make the pit but was a couple of feet away from entering the sand - which means she jumped over 30' in total distance.
This was all done with very little understanding of the event, and showed some serious potential that could lead some great things moving forward. I'm very excited to see her jump again!!!
NEXT WEEK:
We are getting right back to things on Monday with a meet against Madison East. Really looking forward to it!
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